Prosecution responds to Howard appeal

The prosecution filed a response Monday to the defense motion seeking a new trial for Erick Howard. The former Hoover High School football standout was convicted of rape and aggravated robbery in February 2012. The two-time Mr. Football in Ohio was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

The prosecution filed a response Monday to the defense motion seeking a new trial for Erick Howard.

The former Hoover High School football standout was convicted of rape and aggravated robbery in February 2012. The two-time Mr. Football in Ohio was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Stark County Common Pleas Court Judge Taryn Heath will rule on Howard's motion — a common request when convictions are appealed, but rarely granted — before she schedules a resentencing ordered by an appeals court.

The resentencing, which involves a technical issue and the appearance that Howard may have been punished for not accepting a plea deal for 12 years, may not reduce his prison time significantly or change it at all.

An informal hearing on the request for a new trial was scheduled for Monday. However, Heath was off sick and the conference between attorneys did not take place.

Kristen Bates Aylward, the special prosecutor in the case, filed the response Monday afternoon. Howard is asking Heath to let him request a new trial even though the deadline for such a filing has passed.

A special prosecutor was appointed to avoid the appearance of a conflict. An attorney who worked on Howard's appeal since has been hired by the Stark County prosecutor's office.

The case centers around an incident on Aug. 20, 2011, when a man and woman were held at gunpoint and bound with duct tape by two masked men at their North Canton home. The female victim was sexually assaulted.

The defense request centers on a letter that a codefendant in the case, Seth Obermiller, sent to Howard.

According to the defense, the letter suggests that Obermiller's testimony against Howard was untruthful. Obermiller pleaded guilty to taking part in the home invasion and robbery. He was sentenced to seven years in prison.

The prosecution challenges the defense's claim.

"The purported letter from the codefendant is not a recantation, even viewed in a light most favorable to Howard," Bates Aylward wrote.

Obermiller writes that his memory of the robbery was hazy because of drugs he took that day. "This suggestion of a drug haze was in fact explored ... at trial, and is incredible given the wealth of detail this codefendant testified to at trial," Bates Aylward said.